Tuesday, February 26, 2008

To Smoke or Not to Smoke

I hate not knowing what will happen with this smoking ban debate. Hate it. Knowing is supposed to be an advantage of being in the media, you know...knowing what will happen before it happens. I don't know what I don't know on this one.

Last week, the House decided not to let people smoke in casinos or in some cases in their farm machinery on their farms. But the Senate State Government committee seemed to flip those ideas the opposite way: no smoking in casinos, but it's o.k. to smoke on the farm. So what does that mean for the full Senate? As I write this at 6:23pm on Tuesday, I still haven't heard whether the Senate will actually vote on this Wednesday (I'm told the decision won't come down until Wednesday a.m.).

Does that mean the votes are no longer there to pass this? Even if the votes are there, what will that mean? The House would have to get the bill back and pass the Senate version. Will that happen? Will a local option bill letting cities and towns make the decision be a compromise between the chambers instead? I hate not knowing.

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I am COMPLETELY tired of hearing about this to smoke or not to smoke issue. I am a NON-smoker. I dont care if people smoke around me. If I dont want to be around smoke, I will go to a NON-smoking area. What happened to freedom... freedom to smoke. Not the freedom to make everything NON-smoking. People should be worried about minors smoking. I see kids smoking in the parking lot and parking lots near Valley High School ALL the time. If people want to smoke then that is their right. It's not right to tell people that own bars, "You have to make your bar, that you created with your own money, a non-smoking bar." That is nuts.

Why don't people make a bigger deal of issues like drinking and driving, speeding on the interstate, or drugs.

There are people that drink and drive all the time. Kill people. Are there stiffer laws on that. How it is soo easy for high school kids to get alcohol???

The speed limit is 55 mph on the interstate. I wanted to see how fast people drive on the interstate .. I drove 70 ... in a 55 and people where STILL passing me like I was standing still.

But people STILL would rather talk about smoking. Why don't people worry about other more important things.

I don't think that anyone should be told what they can or can not do in the own homes, cars, or the business that they have. What happen to our right to FREEDOM?If the gov. is going to pay my bills, house payments, car payments, insurances, taxes, ect. then I will so what they pass law wise till then I will do as I please in my own home or car.I mean there are people dying everyday from alcohol and nothing is being said about banning it so why don't they look at the stistics on drinking and deaths compared to somking and deaths there are more cases on drinking and deaths then anything.

HAS VERY BODY FORGOT THIS SUPPOSE TO BE THE LAND OF THE FREE???GOVERMENT SHOULD THINK MORE OF HOW TO HELP EVERYBODY TO HAVE MEDICAL,AND HOW TO PUT THE HOMELESS IN HOME'S.THE POOR TO MAKE END'S MEET BETTER.THAT IS WHY EVERYBODY IS VOTING OMABA HE KNOW'S HOW IT IS TO BE POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS.WHY DO THINK YOUNG AND OLD ARE LEAVING IOWA?IT'S BECAUSE THE GOV. IS TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO .THEY HAVE MORE TO DO AND WORRY ABOUT SO GET OFF THE SMOKING BAD.LET THE OWNER'S MAKE IT SMOKE FREE AND IF YOU DO WORK WERE THERE IS SMOKE GO FIND A DIFFERENT JOB.QUIT CRYING ABOUT IT.THOSE OF YOU PUTTING TAX PAYER MONEY IN YOUR POCKET PUT IT BACK SO ARE ROAD'S GET FIXED AND HELP THOSE THAT NEED HELP,GOV OF IOWA DON'T FORGET YOUR WIFE SMOKED AND SHE CHOICE TO QUIT DON'T TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO !!!LET THEM MAKE THE CHOICE.THIS IS AMERICA AND NOT ANOTHER COUNTRY.YOU ALL DON'T KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR ANY ONE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN HOMELESS OR HUNGRY AND CAN'T GET MEDICARE SO STOP NOW AND GET ON THE THING;S THAT NEED DONE AND QUIT SPENDING TAX DOLLAR'S ON STUIPD THING'S YOU ALL HAVE TAKEN ENGOUH OF ARE MONEY.

you put tax stamp on drug's and higher tax's to fix school's and tax's on gas and and.don't you think it's time to stop all of seat in the catipal and say this is what iowa need's and if nobody like's it to bad.why listen to the peolpe they give us there tax dollar's to tell them what to do.WRONG when you got office it's because we though you were going to change thing's for the good.i guess we the peolpe were WRONG for beliveing in someone who lie's.freedom is not in iowa,you can see it ever were you look family's fight to stay above water and keep food and clothes and gas in there car's ,just because peolpe think you should not smoke here or there,if it's a place you eat at ask yourself this why did i take this job.shut up and go find a different job.most place's are smoke free anyway.but goverment should not tell anybody what they can do.is this germany or somewere else?so to all of you at the catpial just remeber this it's time to make a change for the good.here's a list were you should do!!homeless,vet;s,medical for all,middle class,gas prices,teacher's pay.fixing the road's.just some.AND ONE LAST ONE LISTEN TO THE PEOLPE WHO PUT YOU THERE IN THE FRIST PLACE.GET OFF THE SMOKING BILL AND DO SOMETHING TO HELP FAMILY'S BEFORE THEY LEAVE THIS STATE FOR GOOD.OR YOU WILL BE WORSE THEN NOW.

Smoking may be bad, but it pays the bills. If smoking ban passes, what is next.

Every carton of cigarettes sold in the state, the State collects about $20.00. Us smokers fund many Gov. programs. As Smokers are pushed harder to quit or just disappear, where will the politians get the the money to fund their programs. Iowa already has one of the highest(income, property, and sales) tax rates in the nation. The State already has a massive brain drain, what happens when people start leaving because their fed up with Gov. interference.

After banning smoking what is next. If the Gov. says it's to protect the health of the citizens, what about alcohol. More people are hurt everyday by drinking than smoking. If you consider domestic abuse that is elevated by drunken partners, or self inflected injuries from impaired judgement. Or the simple event of a drunk crossing the line killing an innocent family. Why is our hypocritical Gov.not banning alcohol.

I am 45 years old and I have smoked for almost thirty. I have known only three people that have died from lung cancer or smoking related diseases. I have never heard of anyone dieing from second hand smoke. But the list of alcohol related deaths and injuries is long. Will alcohol be the next thing the Gov. bans the use of. If our hypocritical Gov wants to protect it's citizens why not ban the sell of cigarettes, instead of the use.

Smoking bans are a wonderful idea for Iowa. I have supported it and fought for it for four years, and I am very happy to see some progress being made.

Unfortunately, too many people are misinformed about smoking bans. The purpose is to protect the public from a very dangerous substance: second hand smoke. In 2006, the Surgeon General released a statement saying the NO level of second hand smoke exposure is safe for anybody of any age. Second hand smoke contains more than 50 carcinogens, which are chemicals known and proven to cause cancer. When someone smokes, anybody around the smoker is at risk for heart attacks, asthma attacks, and lung cancers, among other diseases. The nonsmoker has NO choice but to breathe in the dangerous smoke. Their rights are infringed upon, and it's VERY detrimental to their health. A smoking ban is NOT made to limit the rights of Americans, it is to IMPROVE the health of innocent people- be it adults, teens, or children.

Also, more people are encouraged to quit, which is very beneficial to them. When they can't smoke while eating or drinking, they smoke less and may quit. Also, kids don't see parents smoking as often, which decreases teen smoking rates. Many teens and kids begin to smoke because their parents smoke.

A smoking ban is riddled with benefits, and quite lacking in drawbacks. Businesses DO NOT suffer, this has been proven in every other state with smoking bans. In fact, more families visit, which bring in more money. Also, employees aren't sick as often, which reaps benefits to the employers.

People aren't being "encouraged to quit" they're FORCED to quit. People who don't smoke want people who do smoke to stop smoking. It's kinda like people who don't have kids, telling people who do have kids, how to raise their children. That makes ablsolutely NO sense. It's like the hospital, they dont want you to smoke in their parking lot EVEN if it's in your own car.

Why don't the Iowa government look at the statistics for smoking related deaths and the alcohol related deaths. Do you know that over 24% of all traffic accidents and traffic deaths are alcohol related. But it doesn't seem too many people are conserned about that.

If the government wants to be so "healthly" why don't they make the healthy foods cheaper. Why don't the poor and ALL children have healthcare. There are so many other more important things that the government can worry about. But since it is not socially acceptable then, what, they should get rid of that one first. Or could this be just like prohibition, people will do it anyways and will take the law away eventually.

I think the govenment needs to get a better hobby and let the people that pay the bills worry about this.

First thing I want to speak about is the fact that people keep saying they people are forced to breathe in second hand smoke. You are not forced to be there nobody is holding you hostage and making you breathe it in and as far as people that work in the environment (like I do) they are not force to work there. There are plenty of non-smoking establishment to work at. I Work in a establishment that is non-smoking but does not support the ban. In the state of Iowa 80% of the eating establishments are smoke free by choice. So quit complaining about not having places to go that are smoke free. The IA restaraunt assoc. does not support the bill and in fact are lobbying against it.

Now to problems that this bill will cause. The fact that people are not going to quit smoking because of the bill. It is going to cause problems in bars and nightclubs. People will be wanting to go out side and smoke causing security and public safety issues. This is not AZ where every bar, night club, restaraunt has a outdoor patio for their patrons to go to without going outside of the property. This will only cause headaches for police and take them away from real crimes because of people that have no life and calling and making complaint about someone smoking when the're real crimes going on that they should be tending to.

Now can the gov. please start spending money on something more important like homeles children and helping low income families like they should but never seems to happen!!!

i do have to say one thing what happen's when the gov. and other people in office lose the alot of the money that is going into there pocket? not to many are smart enough to relize how they take alot of the money and give them self's raise's and forget about help low income family's and homeless.some of them got caught when will the other's?it's time for the gov. to get off the people's back..your going to make it just like with drug's there going to get them and you can't stop it.speeding on the road's ,people drunk and i don't see anything done about that,you just put the speed limit up higher and drunk's lose there lisence's but there still on the road,how many people will die before you do something about that?these bus owner's are doing just fine with out people like you fighting to get this bill though maybe you should pay there taxes seen how your the one's crying about it.get a life.there;s more importnet thing's then smoking,that will be money you will lose and can't have for your other thing's when you run short on cash.were not dumb alot of people out here know's just what your doing in office and don't like it at all.

I don't like these people who have had years and years of smoking to intrude in my life to keep doing it.When I was at the casino the other day I told a lady I didn't like the smoking at the casino. She told me WE had a nonsmoking room, why should I have to stay in one room in a large buisiness. Give the smokers a smoking room for them to enjoy and kill themselves. Why do the smokers think they have more rights then the nonsmokers. Smokers have smoked for years and made my life miserable now it should be our turn. I know the smokers will win because they will keep winning and complaining about there rights not caring about mine. A NONE SMOKER!